Yesterday was my last Yorkshire Coast Nature Goshawk Tour of spring 2024. I am relieved that it was a successful day, with seven Goshawks seen, bringing my hit rate to 100 percent. The Gos have performed brilliantly this year, and it is great to see them thriving in the Yorkshire Forest. Long may it continue! We have watched as pairs defended their territories against last year's young, neighbouring pairs and other rivals, including the local Buzzards. The sight of a slow-flapping female Gos, with her white undertail puffed out, and her long, graduated tail held tightly shut, over the remote forest, is an amazing thing, and I hope these sightings will live long in the memories of all our fabulous clients. Roll on next year!
I am delighted that YCN will be making a donation to the RSPB Investigations team, who do a fantastic job looking after these and other raptors.
Besides the Goshawks, there was a lot of other bird activity in the forest. An early Tree Pipit was a highlight, displaying maniacally: repeatedly climbing up into the sky before parachuting into the top of a tree; a Raven, which gave us a cracking fly-past, and a couple of Swallows back round their home farm. The spring flowers - Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, Wood Anemones, Wood Sorrel and Primroses - lit up the woodland floor, and a bit of warm spring sunshine felt good on our faces after such a long wet winter.
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Today, I headed off to North Duffield Carrs to see if the strong southerly wind had blown anything in. It was clear that more migrants had come in with the warm weather and wind, with several Swallows and a good numbers of Sand Martins. A Ringed Plover flew south, and there were five Ruff, a Dunlin and a Black-tailed Godwith sheltering from the brisk wind. The male and female Scaup were still hanging out with the flotilla of Tufties and Pochard, and the two drake hybrids were still at large, one of which still shadows the drake Scaup.
At 10.30 a flight of 40 Wigeon came in from the east; I joked to Jilly who was in the hide that we should check carefully in case the American Wigeon was with them. To my surprise and delight, it was, and it proceeded to swim towards Garganey Hide, where it showed beautifully in the morning sun although most of the time it was asleep, as per usual! The bird had been at Wheldrake until the end of last week and then had disappeared. I assumed it had departed for northern climes, but it seemed it had just returned to its original patch now that the Derwent has flooded yet again. A very smart bird and great to admire it at much closer quarters. After a couple of hours, I left it to its slumber and headed home.
The drake American Wigeon with his partner
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Later on, a dog walk up the York-Selby cycle track revealed four dazzling Yellow Wagtails feeding with a similar number of Pied Wags in a freshly ploughed field near the Moor Lane bridge at Naburn. Cracking!
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